Looking Back At The Bumpy Roads I've Already Traveled, I Know I Can Make It Over The Winding Roads Ahead!

Today is a continuation of my blog from yesterday. I was sharing with a friend yesterday on yesterday's topic. I read Hebrews 5 to him and he shared how the passage spoke to him. Interesting to me was that he focused in on struggles and suffering while I had focused in on striving for/working for perfection. Ultimately, I believe we ended up at the same place in terms of the importance of suffering as the path or the way to Christ learning obedience and being made perfect. Nonetheless, I think the topic of suffering is worth writing about separately as it provides another angle on how we may want to live our lives as we learn to be obedient.

As I thought about Christ's suffering and my own suffering, I realized that often times the suffering itself sometimes really doesn't make sense. When God inspires or compels us to do something, often times it is not easy and when we are in the midst doing what we are inspired or compelled to do, we can experience heartaches, hardships, and haters. When we experience a job loss and can't find work, or when we experience illness, or when we have experienced the end of a marriage, we hurt. and while we are experiencing these things it doesn't necessarily make sense to use why we are experiencing it. Often times it isn't until we get to the end of the suffering, ie we get a new job that ends up being our life long dream job, our hurt has healed from a marriage or relationship break and we can no see everything clearly and what contributed to the break that enables us to be better or do in a new relationship that is more fulfilling and nurturing than the one before, etc. when we get to the other side, we can look back and see how the struggle and the suffering was beneficial to a new level of trust in obedience to God. After a while of experiencing such, we can genuinely be OK with the next episode of suffering - as difficult as it may be - because we know that when we look back we can see all the times God has taken care of us.

So what does this have to do with getting to my destiny? So much. As we ALL can attest, our life's journey, particularly when we are listening to the spirit within us and moving according to its directions, is filled with turns and ditches and bumps. It's filled with periods of bad weather and rough roads. So, without deep down inside knowing that God has "got this", we can think that when we experience these dark times that this is it… this is the end. We can doubt and think that God isn't going to be able to or isn't willing to get me out of this one. But when we look back and be reminded from where we have come, our souls can truly be at peace that "yes" God will get me through and by going through this dark place I will not only be better prepared for the next dark place, but I will that much closer to my destiny.

So, the next time I find myself in a place where I am suffering, I will stand up and look back over my life's journey to see and remember all the times that God has helped me get through the rough times and all the times God has put me in a place of victory over my circumstances. When I do that two things will happen. First, I can look back and see the places where I have traveled from a different perspective… the view is very different once you've come through something versus when you are in it. For that I can express and thankfulness. Second, I can turn back around to look ahead at where I am and the journey I have in front of me with the confidence of knowing that whatever comes my way, with God I can make it through!! Let's all do this so we can enjoy the ride!